Introduction

Recently I got the opportunity to challenge my performance testing knowledge by taking on the ISTQB Performance Foundation certification exam. To celebrate my passing grade, I figured I’d document my thoughts on the process, and share some of what I learned from the experience. Whether you’re interested in taking on the certification exam yourself, or wanting to convince others to give it a shot, I hope I can offer an interesting read.

Phase 1: The Syllabus

The ISTQB Performance Testing syllabus is a pdf document, some 60 pages long. Depending on one's history of education, that may seem either a daunting task or a fairly trivial one. Regardless, you'll have to obtain a decent understanding of everything mentioned in the syllabus. In addition, a deeper comprehension of quite a few topics is also required to be able to make important judgment calls on the tough multiple-choice questions ISTQB exams love to present you with. You won’t be able to answer everything with just a surface-level familiarity with the material.

The most important topics to me seemed to be risks, planning, and analysis.

I found risks to be fairly straightforward in theory, but it is really important that you can apply the knowledge to a practical scenario and figure out what the main performance risks are. This section of the syllabus is also somewhat less structured than some others, so you’ll have to create that structure yourself (be it mentally, or on a piece of paper).

Planning is perhaps the most essential part of the entire syllabus. Not only is it a major part of the exam, but this is also (in my opinion) the most important stuff to get right when you actually need to evaluate the performance of systems in the real world. If you’re interested in very actionable knowledge or advice, this section should be of particular interest to you.

Analysis applies to both analysis of your requirements, and analysis of results. Both topics with plenty of depth, and not something you'll want to gloss over in your studying efforts. The requirements aspect is closely linked to planning, but results analysis is very much its own beast. Digging into the numbers and figuring out what they mean is probably my personal favourite aspect of Performance Testing. Much more engaging than a simple pass/fail percentage you get in your regular functional testing efforts.

Phase 2: Setting Up

There's honestly not much to say about setting up for the exam. If you take an online proctored exam like I did, you just have to obediently follow the proctor's instructions at the start. I'm personally not really a fan of these because, well, let's just say I prefer being able to look the person watching me in the eye, and it doesn't quite feel the same to stare into my webcam.

Beyond that I always mess up one part of the preparation. In the past I’ve done one of these exams in a particularly messy room, and ended up having to provide close-ups of said mess to the proctor, which was mildly embarrassing. This time I had no towel or sheet at hand to cover up a large screen in the room, so I ended up having to clumsily drape both my coat and jacket over it before the proctor was satisfied I couldn't use it to cheat somehow.

My advice: just read the instructions properly and actually prepare for them in advance.

Phase 3: The Exam

The exam itself consists of 40 multiple-choice questions. You need to get 26 correct, so not an insurmountable bar, but you certainly won't clear it by just picking at random. Though I suppose, given enough tries success is inevitable… but I wouldn’t recommend that approach.

Thankfully, a good chunk of the questions can be answered correctly after a fairly surface-level memorisation of the syllabus contents. There’s a number of questions which simply check for the most basic understanding of the matter, and anyone should certainly be able to get those.

Beware though, naïve memorisation won't get you quite all the way to a passing grade. At some point you'll need to be able to actually apply the knowledge you've gained. Sometimes it’ll take a little thought, other times quite a lot of thought.

My only advice there is to take your time (the time limit isn't particularly harsh) and narrow down the options one by one. Don't shy away from taking a gamble after narrowing it down to just two options, I know I did.

Conclusion

For someone with some previous knowledge or experience in performance testing the ISTQB Performance Testing certification won't break shocking new ground. That being said, it's a good way to check what you know, and provides a framework you can fall back on when you do encounter something just outside the breadth of your previous experiences. It helps you ask the right questions and aids you in avoiding being misled by hidden assumptions. Of course, if you don't have any background in performance testing, then it provides the ideal foundation to get started in this often-overlooked area of testing.